After the organization of the concern in 1869 some of the leading Mormon merchants in Salt Lake City sold their goods to it on favorable terms, knowing that the prices of their stock would go down when the opening of the railroad lowered freight rates. The Z. C. M. I. was started as a wholesale and retail concern, and Young recommended that ward stores be opened throughout the city which should buy their goods of the Institution. Local cooperative stores were also organized throughout the territory, each of which was under pressure to make its purchases of the central concern. Branches were afterward established at Ogden, at Logan, and at Soda Springs, Idaho, and a large business was built up and is still continued.* The effect of this new competition on the non-Mormon establishments was, of course, very serious. Walker Brothers' sales, for instance, dropped $5000 or $6000 a month, and only the opportunity to divert their capital profitably to mining saved them and others from immediate ruin.
Bancroft says that in 1883 the total sales of the Institution exceeded $4,000,000, and a half yearly dividend of five per cent was paid in October of that year, and there was a reserve fund of about $125,000; he placed the sales of the Ogden branch, in 1883, at about $800,000, and of the Logan branch at about $600,000. The thirty-second annual statement of the Institution, dated April 5,1901, contains the following figures: Capital stock, $1,077,144.89; reserve, $362,898.95; undivided profits, $179,042.88; cash receipts, February 1 to December 31, 1900, $3,457,624.44, sales for the same period, $3,489.571.84. The branch houses named is this report are at Ogden City and Provo, Utah, and at Idaho Falls, Idaho.
But at this time an influence was preparing to make itself felt in Utah which was a more powerful opponent of Brigham Young's authority than any he had yet encountered. This influence took shape in what was known as the "New Movement," and also as "The Reformation." Its original leaders were W. S. Godbe and E. L. T. Harrison. Godbe was an Englishman, who saw a good deal of the world as a sailor, embraced the Mormon faith in his own country when seventeen years of age, and walked most of the way from New York to Salt Lake City in 1851. He became prominent in the Mormon capital as a merchant, making the trip over the plains twenty-four times between 1851 and 1859. Harrison was an architect by profession, a classical scholar, and a writer of no mean ability.
With these men were soon associated Eli B. Kelsey, a leading elder in the Mormon church, a president of Seventies, and a prominent worker in the English missions; H. W. Lawrence, a wealthy merchant who was a Bishop's counsellor; Amasa M. Lyman, who had been one of the Twelve Apostles and was acknowledged to be one of the most eloquent preachers in the church; W. H. Sherman, a prominent elder and a man of literary ability, who many years later went back to the church; T. B. H. Stenhouse, a Scotchman by birth, who was converted to Mormonism in 1846, and took a prominent part in missionary work in Europe, for three years holding the position of president of the Swiss and Italian missions; he emigrated to this country with his wife and children in 1855, practically penniless, and supported himself for a time in New York City as a newspaper writer; in Salt Lake City he married a second wife by Young's direction, and one of his daughters by his first wife married Brigham's eldest son. Stenhouse did not win the confidence of either Mormons or non-Mormons in the course of his career, but his book, "The Rocky Mountain Saints," contains much valuable information. Active with these men in the "New Movement" was Edward W. Tullidge, an elder and one of the Seventy, and a man of great literary ability. In later years Tullidge, while not openly associating himself with the Mormon church, wrote the "History of Salt Lake City" which the church accepts, a "Life of Brigham Young," which could not have been more fulsome if written by the most devout Mormon, and a "Life of Joseph the Prophet," which is a valueless expurgated edition of Joseph's autobiography which ran through the Millennial Star.
The "New Movement" was assisted by the advent of non-Mormons to the territory, by Young's arbitrary methods in starting his cooperative scheme, by the approaching completion of the Pacific Railroad, and, in a measure, by the organization of the Reorganized Church under the leadership of the prophet Joseph Smith's eldest son. Two elders of that church, who went to Salt Lake City in 1863, were refused permission to preach in the Tabernacle, but did effective work by house-to-house visitations, and there were said to be more than three hundred of the "Josephites," as they were called, in Salt Lake City in 1864.*
* "Persecution followed, as they claimed; and in early summer
about one-half of the Josephites in Salt Lake City started eastward, so
great being the excitement that General Connor ordered a strong escort
to accompany them as far as Greene River. To those who remained,
protection was also afforded by the authorities."—Bancroft, "History of
Utah," p. 645.
Harrison and Tullidge had begun the publication of a magazine called the Peep o' Day at Camp Douglas, but it was a financial failure. Then Godbe and Harrison started the Utah Magazine, of which Harrison was editor. This, too, was only a drain on their purses. Accordingly, some time in the year 1868, giving it over to the care of Tullidge, they set out on a trip to New York by stage. Both were in doubt on many points regarding their church; both were of that mental make-up which is susceptible to "revelations" and "callings"; by the time they reached New York they realized that they were "on the road to apostasy."
Long discussions of the situation took place between them, and the outcome was characteristic of men who had been influenced by such teachings as those of the Mormons. Kneeling down in their room, they prayed earnestly, and as they did so "a voice spoke to them." For three weeks, while Godbe transacted his mercantile business, his friend prepared questions on religion and philosophy, "and in the evening, by appointment, 'a band of spirits' came to them and held converse with them, as friends would speak with friends. One by one the questions prepared by Mr. Harrison were read, and Mr. Godbe and Mr. Harrison, with pencil and paper, took down the answers as they heard them given by the spirits."* The instruction which they thus received was Delphic in its clearness—that which was true in Mormonism should be preserved and the rest should be rejected.
* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 631.
When they returned to Utah they took Elder Eli B. Kelsey, Elder H. W. Lawrence, a man of wealth, and Stenhouse into their confidence, and it was decided to wage open warfare on Young's despotism, using the Utah Magazine as their mouthpiece. Without attacking Young personally, or the fundamental Mormon beliefs, the magazine disputed Young's doctrine that the world was degenerating to ruin, held up the really "great characters" the world has known, that Young might be contrasted with them, and discussed the probabilities of honest errors in religious beliefs. When the Mormon leaders read in the magazine such doctrine as that, "There is one false error which possesses the minds of some in this, that God Almighty intended the priesthood to do our thinking," they realized that they had a contest on their hands. Young got into trouble with the laboring men at this time. He had contracts for building a part of the Pacific Railroad, which were sublet at a profit. An attempt by him to bring about a reduction of wages gave the magazine an opportunity to plead the laborers' cause which it gladly embraced.*